More travel chaos in Japan as snow storm kills three

Tokyo: Japan's road, rail and air travel services faced further disruptions on Saturday, reports and officials said, after a fresh snow storm killed three people and injured 850 others following last week's deadly blizzard.

Snow began falling on Friday morning in the capital Tokyo and piled up to 26 centimetres (10 inches) by early on Saturday, a week after the heaviest snowfall in decades left at least 11 people dead and more than 1,200 injured across the nation.

A driver was killed on Friday in a crash involving his car and a truck on an icy road in Shiga, central Japan, while a farmer died after a tractor overturned on a snow-covered road in southwestern Oita, local media said.

In a separate snow-related accident, a driver was killed and three others injured on an expressway in central Shizuoka, the news reports said. Public broadcaster said some 850 people, including one in a coma, have been injured in snow-related accidents across the nation since snow hit western Japan late Thursday.

Drivers were struggling to move their cars in the capital's residential district of Setagaya, while snow started melting and flooding some roads in downtown Tokyo. Television footage showed hundreds of passengers resting on benches and floors under blankets at Haneda airport in Tokyo as public transport services were suspended due to heavy show.

At least 628 flights, mostly on domestic routes, were cancelled today at Haneda and other airports in eastern Japan, NHK said, a day after more than 260 flights were grounded due to heavy snow. Two commuter trains collided at Motosumiyoshi station in Tokyo early on Saturday leaving 19 passengers injured, officials said.

The accident occurred as train services were disrupted due to the storm but it was not immediately clear if the collision was directly related to the bad weather. Transport authorities are investigating the case.

The storm also caused delays and suspensions on the "shinkansen" bullet train services and the closure of a number of highways across the country. Some 187,000 households lost power mainly in eastern Japan due to snow and strong winds, NHK said.

The meteorological agency continued warning of heavy snow in eastern Japan as well as strong winds and high waves along coastal areas, which may cause snowslides. Last week, as much as 27 centimetres of snow was recorded in Tokyo, the capital's worst snowfall for 45 years.

While much of that snow had melted, the remains of larger piles as well as some slightly diminished snowmen were still in evidence across the city.